Hi everyone. I’ve been taking Welbutrin XL for about depression for about 4 weeks now and my sex drive has gone through the roof! Has anyone here ever taken it? Usually antidepressants make my sex drive go away so I started taking Welbutrin because the ads say low risk of sexual side effects… but they should say low risk negative sexual side effects because I’m definitely experiencing a side effect, but it’s a very positive one.
Lately I’ve just been horny all the time. Women seem to look more beautiful and porn seems to be all I can think about. I’ve also been jacking off 5 or 6 times a day and they have been the most profoundly earth shattering orgasms of my life!
Anyway it got so bad at work today that I had to leave early to come home and watch porn. I lost count how many times I’ve gotten off but that’s all I’ve been doing today and I don’t want to stop. Good thing I didn’t have any other plans.
So has anyone else here tried Welbutrin and experienced the same thing?
I'd advise reporting this side effect to your prescribing doctor -- not necessarily because it's bad, but just because the medication changed your behavior (other than your specifically depressive behavior) enough for you to notice it.
I've never taken Wellbutrin but I had similar problems with Zoloft after a bout of depression. It didn't increase my sex drive but seemed to delay my ejaculation. In other words, I found it hard to cum while masturbating or having sex. I don't take it any more but the effect lasted for quite some time.
I'm on gabapentin (neurontin) right now for pain. It can also be prescribed for seizures and mood disorders. It's one of those types you have to slowly ramp up the dosage on until you're at your peak effective range. The first several days I was taking it, before it was full dose, I just felt dizzy and nauseated a lot (the pain relief kicked in right away). The following week, though, WEEEEEEE! I'm on top of the world! I can beat up everybody! I can do anything! I'm gonna win the Lotto! I had one of those "feelings of extreme well-being" they mentioned in the side effects. You know what goes with feelings of extreme well-being? Yep - I wanted to "do it"! Wooo-hoo! Let's all "do it"... everyone "do it" with me! Sadly, the same thing that makes gabapentin an effective medicine for my kind of pain makes it really interfere with orgasm. I can get there, but it takes about 3 or 4 times as long. After about 3 weeks the feeling of extreme well-being faded into a more normal state of mood, and the "doing it" desire went back to normal, too.
ditto. You would think that they would start prescribing it to minutemen or one-pump chumps for the side effect. But I'm sure there are good reasons why they haven't.
the big sis is a shrink and i need to call her today anyhow, hopefully i can slip some hypothetical version of this by her and let you know what she says. obviously, she's not your doctor, but lemme see if she says anything that you could bring up.
update-i'd talk to your doc-apparently zyban/welbutrin tend to cause repetitive/compulsive behavior for some people, which might include the whacking like a spider monkey deal. also, and a big also is you probably want to ask him/her if there's any chance you've got any signs of a mild bipolar-deal. bup. apparently can trigger some serious mania in people who never knew it was an issue.
Thanks for looking into that for me. Sorry if my post seemed misleading. I wasn't really looking for advice, I wanted to let people know how great it is. This seemed like a good place to do that. I've already talked to my doctor and I'm not concerned about it at all.
I'm having the highest sex drive and best orgasms of my life and I'm loving it! Its like taking something that was already and enjoyable experience for me and then cranking it up 5 or 6 notches.
The Welbutrin seems to be helping w/ my depression as well. I feel a lot better and my wife says she notices a big difference. The sex drive thing is just an unexpected bonus. I had no idea I was taking an aphrodisiac.
And when we saw the topic, some of us wanted to talk about Zoloft. Zoloft does not affect your libido at all, nor your ability to get an erection, but it does make it much harder to orgasm. When I was on it, I could rub myself raw and never get any payoff. I didn't watch porn as much when I was on it, there was no point in getting all excited but not always being able to get any relief, or taking more time than I could afford to lose when I had papers due or tests to study for. But if someone had a premature ejaculation problem, Zoloft might make them endurance champions in the sack, as well as relieving their depression. Assuming, of course, that the sexual side effects are the same for everyone, which may not be the case. Welbutrin may also have different side effects for different people.
I believe most anti-depressants can potentially trigger a 'hypomania', extreme feeling of well being. Especially if you suffer from bi-polar / manic depression.
Most anti-depressants (SSRI's) lowers sex drive though. If you experience that, you might want to ask your doc for Mirtazapine.
I have taken Lexipro and had this same reaction. I was very horny and it also made it harder to cum (girlfriend not complaining). I have also taken Prozac, which made it harder to cum but also harder to maintain an erection. Another drug is Rameron. I took this for a while and it seemed to dull my sex drive. All these were taken for depression.
supposedly lexapro's the hot ssri amongst those with prescription pads the last few years due in part to interfering with fucking less than the previous generation of things. i don't take it but i've got a cool lexapro-pen. if you really want to know why drugs cost so much, it's the truckloads of promotional junk ranging from frisbees to refrigerator magnets to swiss army knives shrinks get free.
If you believe case studies (the 100 completely random people picked of the streets which will resemble your class untill the next case study), Remeron has no adverse effects on sex-drive, unlike other anti-depressants.
Doctor CC just advises to wait for the next hypomania and then screw to make up for lost time, and throw away carbage medication.
My understanding is that, while it's less likely to trigger a manic episode, if it does it'll probably be dysphoric (i.e. what croy said above: "the worst combination is being physically hyper yet emotionally depressed").
I'm on a low dose myself, and have to mention that it seems to cloud my mind - short-term memory in particular.
i've taken wellbutrin, as well as prozac/adderal/ritalin(concerta)/depakote/and strattera over the past 20 years (not to mention the pharmaceutical seventies!) and the only thing to slow me down has been straterra. i think it depends on your libido when it comes to medication- your mileage may vary, good luck. oh yeah, i almost forgot about coke- the cruelest of jokes, made me hornier than anything else but couldn't come, the joke without a punchline!
I take Effexor for both depression and panic disorder (panic attacks are terrible things) and it has improved my libido because I generally feel well and relaxed. However it has made reaching orgasm extremely difficult and I hate that. I researched Wellbutrin, and a major side effect is anxiety. I take the Effexor to relieve the anxiety triggered by my depression, so this isn't an option for me. I complained to my husband about it, telling him that I sometimes quit and give up even during masturbation. He was a man on a mission. Finally he came home one day with an aptly-named topical product called "Finally." That. Stuff. Works. Not only did I achieve orgasm in nearly the same length of time I used to before antidepressants, I started having multiples again. Even better, the orgasms were incredibly intense. I would recommend it to any woman experiencing my same circumstances. I'd caution that it's not an "orgasm cream." You can't just apply it and wait for the climax. You have to be mentally prepared for sex and let yourself get aroused. It's not a magic product. It doesn't make your stress disappear. But if you can set the mood and get really into the sex you're having, you should achieve orgasm.
~P
P.S. It's marketed strictly for women. I have no idea what it would do to a man.
Posted - Sep 17 2005 : 12:17AM
